Scranton eyes are smiling in Ireland on Biden's tour of Emerald Isle

Apr. 13—Scranton eyes are smiling in Ireland on a tour with native son President Joe Biden.

The White House invited Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti, Virginia Doherty McGregor and her husband, Robert McGregor, to visit Ireland for Biden's trip there this week.

The McGregors arrived Tuesday on the Emerald Isle and Cognetti got there Wednesday night. They have attended various events with the president.

They also will participate Friday in a visit to Ballina, Scranton's sister city in Ireland in County Mayo that is the home of ancestors of Biden and many Scrantonians of Irish descent, including Virginia McGregor.

"I'm honored beyond words to be representing the city of Scranton on President Biden's trip to Ireland," Cognetti said Thursday in a phone interview.

Last month, the mayor welcomed a contingent from Ballina visiting Scranton for the St. Patrick's Parade. It's Cognetti's third visit to Ireland, and her first in an official capacity after tourism trips there in 2017 and 2018.

Cognetti posted a short, lighthearted video Thursday on Instagram of her and Biden.

"Hello Scranton. You've got a great mayor and she's over here keeping me straight in Dublin and I need her help," Biden said in the video.

Biden's four-day tour of Ireland that began Tuesday is his first trip back as America's president, and for him, this trip is both official and personal.

The president's visit has highlighted the U.S. role of 25 years ago in the "Good Friday" peace accord ending decades of bloodshed in Northern Ireland. Biden also is taking the opportunity to embrace his heritage and visit with distant relatives in the Republic of Ireland.

Biden's Irish ancestors were among those who came to America during the 1800s.

His boyhood home is at 2446 N. Washington Ave. in Scranton's Green Ridge section. Throughout his career, Biden has famously and often referenced his early upbringing in Scranton.

The home's front door sports a sign of the house number with the "46" highlighted in a circle signifying Biden is the 46th president. A framed placard attached to a wrought-iron railing on the front lawn says "From This House to the White House" and contains a photo of Biden as a boy in front of the home.

With his tour of Ireland, Biden, 80, also is reveling in his Irish roots, of which he is immensely proud and also often references.

It's the first trip to Ireland for Virginia McGregor, a Green Ridge resident of the 1700 block of North Washington Avenue and an influential fundraiser in the Democratic party. She is the sister of former Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty.

In a 2020 "Build Back Better" campaign stop, Biden toured the McGregors' McGregor Industries Inc. metal works facility in the Keystone Industrial Park.

A photographic media image from an event in Northern Ireland this week and also posted on social media shows Virginia McGregor warmly embracing Biden in a hug, as both smile.

"It's an incredible honor to be on this historic trip with President Biden," partly because of their shared heritage, she said Thursday in a phone interview. "From County Mayo to North Washington Avenue."

Biden's trip included appearances in Belfast, the capital and largest city in Northern Ireland; Dublin, the capital of the Republic of Ireland; and County Louth and County Mayo, on Ireland's East and West coasts, respectively, and from where Biden's ancestors hail.

The president will spend Friday in County Mayo, exploring family genealogy and giving a speech about ties between the U.S. and Ireland in front of a 19th century cathedral that the White House said was partly built using bricks supplied by his great-great-great-grandfather, Edward Blewitt, a brickmaker and civil engineer.

Excitement over Biden's trip was palpable in Ballina, from which one of the president's great-great-grandfathers left for the United States in 1850.

The center of the bustling agricultural town of about 10,000 residents in western Ireland features a mural of a beaming Biden, erected in 2020.

Many people from Ballina and the surrounding County Mayo moved to Pennsylvania in the 19th century, and Ballina is twinned with Scranton, Biden's hometown.

Ireland's Irish Family History Centre says Biden "is among the most 'Irish' of all U.S. Presidents" — 10 of his 16 great-great-grandparents were from the Emerald Isle. All left for the U.S. during the Great Famine of the mid-19th century, which killed an estimated 1 million people.

More than 30 million people in the U.S., or about 1 in 10, claim Irish ancestry.

The trip is also a reminder of the role of Irish Americans in U.S. political life.

Ireland has warmly welcomed American presidents since John F. Kennedy, also of Irish descent, became the first to visit in 1963. Barack Obama got a jubilant reception in 2011, when he visited the tiny hamlet of Moneygall, home to one of his great-great-great-grandfathers.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Contact the writer:

jlockwood@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5185;

@jlockwoodTT on Twitter.